By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

For the past four wrestling seasons, coaches at Osceola High have had the luxury of penciling the name “Locksmith” onto the score sheet before most matches.

Senior Tim Locksmith placed third at the Class 3A state tournament in February to complete an era that saw him and his older brother, Joe, combine for six state tournament appearances.

Joe Locksmith, a 2010 OHS graduate and a two-time state champion, is finishing his second year as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he competes for the wrestling team.

Tim Locksmith, ranked among the top 10 of the OHS Class of 2012, also will wrestle in college. He selected Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., as the place to continue his wrestling career.

Tim Locksmith qualified for the state tournament all four seasons at OHS and placed three times.

His career was hampered by a torn pectoral muscle and a separated shoulder midway through his junior year that forced him to wrestle with one arm into the 2011 state tournament, where he still managed to finish sixth despite injury defaulting his final two matches.

“I learned to a lot of things with my weak hand,” he said. “It was a problem, but you have to deal with it. I twitched it again in the winter, but it’s pretty good now. I’ve been doing my exercises.”

Despite that handicap, Tim collected 182 career victories, 120 by pin.

Locksmith, 42-2 last season, displayed his tenacity at the state tournament in February when he was upset in the first round at 132 pounds. From there, Locksmith won five straight matches to earn a third-place medal.

“I was kind of looking forward,” he said. “The hard thing after that was that I knew I couldn’t finish any better at state than I had before, third. It was kind of like, ‘Been there, done that.’ But, I couldn’t just quit because of the team. If was going to be the captain, I had to wrestle as hard as I could.”

Wabash Coach Brad Anderson is looking forward to adding Locksmith to his roster.

“We are very excited about having him come to Wabash next year,” Anderson said. “Tim received our Top 5 Percent Scholarship for his excellent performance in the classroom. He is exactly what our program looks for in a student-athlete.”

Wabash is a male-only liberal arts college of about 850 students located about 70 miles from Indianapolis.

“When I heard about it being male only, I almost said ‘no thanks,’ but after I went up there, it is everything I wanted. They offered me a good scholarship package, and it’s a small campus,” he said.

The wrestling team competes in the NCAA Division III North Coast Athletic Conference.

Anderson expects Locksmith to be in the lineup next season.

“I view Tim as an instant impact guy for us in the lower weights next season and that he will have a great career here at Wabash,” he said. “He is coming out of a great high school program that has given him a strong skill set, one that should allow him to hit the ground running next fall. Our coaching staff is very eager to start working with him and look forward to watching him succeed over the next four years.”

Kowboys Coach Jim Bird expects Locksmith to enjoy a successful career at Wabash.

“They’re excited about getting a D-I level wrestler, and that’s what he is. You never have to worry about Tim being prepared, he’s always going to have everything done in the classroom. He’s going to be very successful there.”

Locksmith is a pre-med major.

And, the Locksmith saga at OHS has yet to run its full course.

Next year, Tim’s brother, John, will enroll at OHS and compete for the wrestling team.